🇺🇸 영어 원문
After Donald Trump’s executive order demanding the name change, Google is the first major online maps provider to flip the switch.
Lake Ontario is no more on Google Maps in the US. Google changed the name of the easternmost of the Great Lakes to “Lake America” late Saturday, days after President Donald Trump ordered its rebranding in official government databases.
Trump issued the executive order on Thursday as part of an ongoing feud over tariffs with Canada, whose capital province is called Ontario. It followed a similar order he issued in January 2025 to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America as part of a fight with the US trading partner to the south.
Google, Apple, Microsoft, and other maps providers adopted the Gulf of America naming as soon as the US Department of the Interior updated its records, which came a couple of weeks after Trump’s order. So it was no surprise that when those records—which are used to determine names on roadway signs and in government literature—reflected Lake America, digital maps from Google also quickly took on the new name.
Apple Maps and Bing Maps have not yet reflected the change but are expected to. In fact, the map for the federal government’s Geographic Names Information System database, which informs these changes, still showed Lake Ontario as of Sunday morning, with a note that the maps are “in the process of being updated to reflect this name change.”
While Google and other private organizations that provide maps are not bound by law to use official names, they generally follow government databases like GNIS. The location names a user sees depends on their own geography.
“People using Maps in the US will see ‘Lake America,’ those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario,’ and those outside of the US and Canada will see both names,” Google said in an unsigned statement. “These updates follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country, and are starting to roll out now.”
Trump’s efforts to rewrite maps have generated considerable public debate in open-source mapping communities such as OpenStreetMap, whose technology is used by companies such as Uber and Lyft. Ultimately, OpenStreetMap recognizes both the US and foreign names and gives organizations using its maps the choice over which to show.
One map provider that has so far declined to make the change is MapQuest, which said in a social media post in response to Trump’s order that “we’re not changing it.”
🇰🇷 한국어 요약
미국 트럼프 대통령이 캐나다와의 관세 분쟁 속에서 온타리오 호를 ‘Lake America’로 변경하라는 행정명령을 내린 뒤, 구글 지도는 미국의 주요 지도 서비스 중 처음으로 이 이름을 바꾸었습니다. 구글은 미국 내 사용자에게는 ‘Lake America’, 캐나다 사용자에게는 ‘Lake Ontario’, 그 밖의 지역에는 두 이름을 모두 표시하는 정책을 따르고 있습니다. 지도 서비스 업체들은 법적으로 공식 이름을 따라야 하지는 않지만, 보통 정부 데이터베이스를 기준으로 삼습니다. 이번 사안은 지도에 담긴 이름이 단순한 정보가 아니라 정치, 외교, 공공기록과 연결될 수 있다는 점을 보여 줍니다.
🔑 핵심 단어 (Vocabulary)
- executive order – 행정명령 – Trump issued the executive order on Thursday.
- tariff – 관세 – an ongoing feud over tariffs with Canada
- rebranding – 이름 또는 브랜드 변경 – ordered its rebranding in official government databases
- database – 데이터베이스 – official government databases
- geography – 지리 – depends on their own geography
- open-source – 오픈소스 – open-source mapping communities
- map provider – 지도 제공 업체 – One map provider that has so far declined to make the change is MapQuest.
- body of water – 수역 – bodies of water with names that vary from country to country
- roll out – 점진적으로 도입하다 – starting to roll out now
🔗 원문 링크
https://www.wired.com/story/google-maps-now-shows-lake-america-instead-of-lake-ontario/